Office of Medical Communications

Fletcher Allen Announces Name Change

Fletcher Allen Health Care, shown here, will be renamed The University of Vermont Medical Center in Fall 2014, according to an announcement released June 19, 2014. (Photo: UVM Medical Photography)

Institutional logos that will be incorporated as part of the new naming process for Fletcher Allen Health Care and the hospitals in Fletcher Allen Partners.

Fletcher Allen Partners and The University of Vermont have announced that Fletcher Allen Partners will be changing its name to The University of Vermont Health Network, with the names of the affiliated hospital organizations also changing. Fletcher Allen Health Care will be renamed The University of Vermont Medical Center. Plattsburgh, N.Y.’s CVPH Medical Center will adopt the name “Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital” and will use that name together with “The University of Vermont Health Network” in all communications to express its participation in the Network. Barre, Vt.-based Central Vermont Medical Center and Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital will use their names with “The University of Vermont Health Network” in the same manner to express their affiliation in all communications.

This change – planned to take effect this fall – aims to clearly signal to people in the region that the hospitals are part of an academic health network, aligned with one of the top 10 academic medical centers in the country. A name that clearly identifies the network and the institutions that are part of the network will make it easy for patients to identify health care organizations affiliated with The University of Vermont.

“This new name reflects our teamwork – today and for the months and years to come,” says John Brumsted, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Fletcher Allen Partners and Fletcher Allen Health Care. “For the past two years, our hospitals have been enhancing quality of care through collaboration, saving millions in supply chain costs, and making the tough, but important, decisions about which services we should offer at which locations to best serve our patients. Identifying ourselves as The University of Vermont Health Network emphasizes our academic core and signals that we are working together to provide seamless, high-quality care to the people of our communities, no matter where patients go for services within our network.”

“This collective decision will enhance the local, regional and national reputations and quality of all of the entities that will bear The University of Vermont name, and makes more visible to the general public and to patients the important work that the university and these hospitals are doing together,” says Tom Sullivan, president of the University of Vermont.

In the coming weeks, Fletcher Allen will be making corporate filings with the Vermont Secretary of State and obtaining necessary approvals from the New York State Education Department and the New York Department of Health. Once the name change has received approval, a phased rollout of the new brand will begin. This rollout is anticipated to start late this fall and take approximately 12 to 18 months.